Samurai Swords

The first samurai swords we're actually straight bladed, single edged
weapons imported from Korea and China referred to as chokuto, which were
later replaced with the curved blade variety after the 8th Century. The
specific curved blade swords which replaced them was Tachi. The reason
behind this modification was samurai discovered that a curved sword
could be sucked from the scabbard more swiftly and provided an even more
effective cutting angle.

The purpose of a samurai sword is known as Kissaki. This is actually the
hardest part of the sword to shine and forge and to hand produce a
quality one would require an incredibly skilful artisan. The value of a
sword is determined usually by the quality of the purpose.

Samurai would use wooden swords (Bokken) for practice for safety reasons
as well as for preserving their real swords from unnecessary damage.

The samurai gives names to their swords because they believe in the sword lived their warrior spirit.

There are three main types of samurai sword. 1: Katana: The longest kind
of sword, over 24inches, generally used for outdoor combat. 2:
Wakizashi: Around another shorter compared to Katana at between 12 and
24 inches, it was worn in indoor establishments by samurai because of
its obvious better manouverability indoors. 3: Tanto: A little knife
utilized in much the same manner like a Wakizashi.

As part of the samurai sword making process a sword tester took the new
blade and cut through the bodies of corpses or condemned criminals. They
started by cutting through the small bones of the body and increased
towards the large bones. Test outcome was often recorded on the nakago
(the metal piece attaching the sword blade towards the handle).

Shogun is the name of the very powerful samurai, and they'd wear two
samurai swords. A Katana and a Wakizashi. They had a license to
dismember anyone who offended them.